Blast Furnace Stock House A blast furnace (BF) needs for the production of hot metal (HM) (i) iron bearing raw materials like sinter, pellet, and calibrated lump ore also known as sized iron ore, (ii) fuels and reductant like BF coke, nut coke and pulverized coal, (iii) fluxing materials like lime stone, dolomite, and quartzite, and (iv) miscellaneous materials (also known as ‘additives’) like manganese ore, and titani-ferrous iron ore etc. All these materials except the pulverized coal which is injected in the blast furnace at the tuyere level are charged in the furnace at the top and are handled through a stock house. The blast furnace charging system consists of two main areas, the stock house system and the top charging equipment. The purpose of the blast furnace charging system is to enable the raw materials to be placed inside the furnace accurately and consistently in a predictable and controlled way. At the stock house system, the weighing, batching of the raw materials is carried out for their delivery to the top charging equipment. The top charging equipment serves the function of delivering blast furnace raw materials to the furnace top and distributing these materials into the furnace. The purpose of the stock house is to deliver the correct quantities of coke, iron bearing materials, fluxing materials and additives to the furnace as expeditiously as possible to keep the blast furnace at top operating performance. The stock house is the area where the individual raw material types are stored and then measured out in the prescribed order for delivery to the top of the blast furnace. The typical blast furnace stock house in the early 1900s was built as a deep pit in the ground and rail cars were moved over it and...